Category: Art and Perfume Advertising

Helena Rubinstein’s birthdate was December 25, 1872, so I thought I’d share this vintage advertisement (featuring Madame Rubinstein herself!) and a reminder that the Jewish Museum’s exhibition about Rubinstein continues through March 22. I highly recommend it—it gives a detailed and lively look at the career of this one-of-a-kind cosmetics entrepreneur, art collector, and philanthropist. You can read more of my thoughts on the exhibition here, at Biography.com.

Every Friday, Now Smell This hosts a “community project.” For today’s group post, everyone is wearing and naming the a “down the rabbit hole” scent—the fragrance that turned her/him into a perfume obsessive.

Mine? The original Jean Paul Gaultier perfume, now called Classique. It was launched in 1993, and I wore it regularly in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It’s not a niche fragrance, nor the creation of an independent perfumer, no—but thanks to this fragrance in its female-torso bottle, I started thinking about fragrance in a deeper and more detailed way. I realized that rose and vanilla were (and are!) two of my favorite notes to wear. I learned the difference between an Eau de Toilette and an Eau de Parfum, and I noticed the differences between these two formulations of Gaultier’s fragrance. I admired the bottle and learned that it was inspired by an earlier, iconic example: Schiaparelli’s Shocking (created in 1937). Personal taste, terminology, history, visual identity; all aspects of fragrance that I still ponder and research.

If you’re a NST reader, please do add your own gateway perfume to the community post today!

I’ve had this vintage magazine advertisement saved for a while. It’s a Bergdorf Goodman promotion for an “autumn afternoon dress” by Townley, available in Bergdorf’s “Country & Casual Shop” for $110. The illustrator showed his elegant female figure (wearing not only the Townley frock, but also heels, hat, gloves, and earrings) enjoying several works of art…

Are you old enough to remember the Wacky Packs trading cards sold by Topps in the 1970s and 1980s? Did you own any? They were very popular at my grade school. Although I didn’t personally own any, I could appreciate their parodies of popular consumer products. I don’t remember this card specifically, but now that I’m looking at it, I’m finding it pretty humorous. It’s a direct parody of Lanvin’s classic fragrance My Sin, released in 1924 and discontinued in 1988.